Developer: Ino-Co Plus
Publisher: KISS ltd
Platforms: PC, iOS, FB
Tested on: PC
Gunspell – Review
Gunspell is a puzzle game, quite similar to the famous Bejeweled, that has been updated with a strong storyline and several RPG elements. Developed by the Russian game developers Ino-Co Plus, the game was originally created as a mobile game that has now been ported to PC.
Story
The storyline in Gunspell starts off with FBI agent John D. who finds his sister is missing. When searching her home, he finds a shaman amulet and a business card. As he reaches the destination of the address on the business card, he meets Richard Melbrook, the senior manager of the gunshop Strong in Spirit. According to this strange man, John’s sister has been working there for a while now but she hasn’t been coming in to work since a week. John quickly finds out that the gunshop is not what it seems to be and the story quickly unravels from here on.
The world that John knows is about to get even more strange when Richard tells him that his sister is working for an Order and regularly travels to different worlds in the universe. Earth, as John knows it, is only a Middle world. The other worlds are mostly populated by monsters who want to conquer his world and his sister has gone missing in one of those worlds. John quickly receives the title of an agent trainee in this Order and is sent out on a mission to find his sister along with other missing agents. During his mission, he finds several creatures that are not normally known to mankind and the mystery grows.
Graphics
The graphics in Gunspell are as you would expect from a mobile game, not realistic with a hint of cartoon-styled visuals. Each location has its own background drop but none of these backgrounds are animated. In fact, the only animation you may encounter are the visual effects when you encounter an enemy which you need to defeat Bejeweled-style.
Sound
The sound design in Gunspell does not bring in any extra juice to the game so you can easily mute the sound and play with your favorite music in the background instead of the looping instrumental soundtrack. Of course, the clinging sound of coins and the swirly sounds of the visual effects when you’ve gained mana is present but as I mentioned before, the sound does not add value to the game itself.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Gunspell is similar to Bejeweled with the added bonus that the various colors of gems give you a certain type of ability or stats. Besides a large range of colored gem, you will also find skulls. These skulls deals damage accordingly to the number they have on their forehead. Green gems are meant to heal the characters while purple gems give experience. Red, blue and yellow gems give the player mana in the respectively colors which can be used later on to power-up equipment the player is carrying at that time. Additionally the field will have some silver coins which will grant the player an increase of coins. The coins come in handy at the shop, where you can buy more equipment and at a later stage even magic spells. Besides the market and a magic shop, you will also unlock a workshop where you can repair or improve your gear.
As Gunspell is very story-driven, the amount of time that you actually play the Bejeweled-type of games is fairly slim compared to the amount of time you’ll be spending on the story itself and the shops. This feature causes the game to feel quite unbalanced especially since the games you do get to play are mostly over rather fast – provided you are in enough luck to get the needed gems to finish the opponent off in a single blow. The quick and fast games also gives the player the feeling that he is playing yet another game that has been ported from mobiles to PC. The tutorial of the game is not necessarily bad but it also doesn’t explain everything which is a shame since that is what tutorials in games are meant for. When you are told to ‘tap’ anywhere to continue, the feeling of playing yet another mobile port only increases.
The game offers several medals in-game but these are not converted to actual achievements on Steam, while it is not mandatory, it would have been a great additional feature.
Conclusion
Gunspell is a fine game if you are bored and want to play some quick games but I feel that it does itself no justice being called a PC game. While there is nothing wrong with playing mobile ports, it does become an annoyance when it is clear that the game has not been altered in any way to deserve that title.
Gunspell - Review,
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